


The 94 Taboo

by primelueur



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Angst, Character Death, Dark, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Reoccurring Nightmare, Strangers to Lovers, Taboo, but not too dark lolol, curse, subtle fluff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-20
Updated: 2017-09-20
Packaged: 2018-12-31 22:12:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12142200
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/primelueur/pseuds/primelueur
Summary: Sehun insisted to love the kind stranger. But it came with a price.





	The 94 Taboo

Sehun was deep in his tangled thoughts. Like a broken reel of a movie, the scene kept repeating in his head and no matter how much he tried to shake it off- he couldn’t get rid of the image. He found it so absurd; he had never met any man like that before. Sehun wasn’t sure what to address _him_. He was not even sure if it was a game of his mind or if he personally knew the man from his dream. Sehun doubted the latter. The man appeared in his dreams once in a while, but the consequences always left him dumbfounded. Only this time, it was a tad different, but no less creepy. Sehun didn’t like it. For the first time, he was able to see _his_ face clearly. Too clear for his liking and it still send chills down his spine albeit few nights had passed by. _How can a person looks so serene yet so eerie at the same time?_ Sehun thought he could go blind by the glaring red blaze behind the _person_. _He_ appeared for a few seconds, smiled meaningfully and that was a cue for Sehun to wake up, drenched in his own sweats despite the chilly autumn weather seeping through the slightly ajar window.

Sehun tilted back his head, resting it against the window. The sound of the train rattled did not seem to bother him anymore. Being heartbroken did a wonder to him. He overcame the fear of riding public transportations, and he learned how to drink like a man. Also, he found out that alcohol is a human repellent. With wobbly legs, hooded eyes, flushed face and obnoxious foul-smell; nobody wanted to get close to Sehun. In spite of being an agnostic, he somehow regarded whoever invented alcohol is a God. Unknowingly, a smile made its way on Sehun’s face and a small chuckle escaped from his throat.

Sehun began to feel drowsy and his eyes fluttered to close. The soothing voice of a woman coming out from the intercom sounded faint to him. He could feel the train slowing down to a halt, but his eyes refused to open. Sehun figured he might miss his stop. But he was not bothered to give the screen a look. He could hear the sound of people entering and alighted the train, the noisy sound of women giggling, the heavy sound of group of elderly talking in a booming volume. Sehun’s head began to pound and with a great effort; he tried to open his eyes, scanning the train filled with human before his eyes rested on the screen. The letters looked wonky to him, after a few seconds he realized that it was his stop but it was too late. Again, Sehun did not care.

He lost the will to live but as cliché as it sounded; he wanted to go far away. Even though the final station would be just 4 stops from where he was. The force of the train moving forward snapped his head to the side, and Sehun opened his reddening eyes out of annoyance. It took Sehun a few seconds to notice that a male sitting opposite of him was boring his eyes on his own, but only to snap his head away, avoiding Sehun’s intoxicated gaze. Sehun ignored him, uninterested. He licked his dry lips and crossed his arms, and Sehun drifted off to a deep slumber despite a part of him was scared if the reoccurring nightmare would come back. And Sehun definitely did not want to scream in public.

 

**. . .**

 

Sehun was woken up by the sound of water dripping. Three drops at once. Two drops. One drop. He grew annoyed by the sound for what he thought the water was dripping on his own eardrum. _Where does the sound come from?_ Sehun groaned and shuffled on the bed. His eyes were wide open when realization hit him that the feeling of the bed sheet was too unfamiliar, too rough against his pampered skin. And the mattress was too hard on his bones. The air he was breathing in was sharp and unpleasantly cold. Of course, the scent- he always had the scents of lavender and lemon mixed together for his room- but this was far too different from what he was accustomed to. _Fuck_. Sehun abruptly sat up and regretted it instantly. He felt like someone was hammering his skull and squeezing his eyeballs but he managed to force himself to open his eyes. Sehun’s eyes scanned the room slowly, as he was trying to rake his brain if he had ever been there. He knew too well that he was sober and was not hallucinating. He looked down to his torso and his breath hitched. _This is not what I wore last night._ And so he thought he was being abducted.

“Oh, good. You’re up.” a voice said calmly and Sehun’s head turned quick toward the source of the voice. Standing by the small door that leads to the balcony, a familiar boy was wrangling wet clothes and that easily explained the sound of the dripping water. Sehun squinted his eyes, trying to get a better vision of the boy since the morning sunlight was beaming behind him. The boy was wearing a simple blue sweater, a long sport pants and he had a towel slung around his neck. His hair was still damp and Sehun could hear the occasional sound of the boy struggling to breathe through what it seemed like a stuffy nose. He had a blue pail by his side and Sehun took note that he was doing the laundry.

_Wait a second-_

“Those are my clothes,” Sehun blurted unknowingly. The boy shot him a look and continue to pin Sehun’s black shirt on the clothesline. He noticed that all of the clothes being hung were his. His jacket, socks, and pants. Sehun reddened. “Why did you take off my clothes?”

“Because you vomited your stomach out, and your clothes were reek in alcohol. Also, your pants were covered with your dinner,” the boy simply retorted, still not looking, “Not a really great sight to see,” Sehun grew agitated by his nonchalant act; it sounded too casual for his liking. He kicked the blanket away and hopped off the mattress. Even the feeling of the floor against his soles felt weird. Sehun wanted to go home as soon as he could but he did not even know where he was and most importantly, whose house he was in.

“Wha- Did you take off my pants?” Sehun did not know what kind of answer he was expecting from the question. But he could feel his cheeks reddening and his ears felt hot, and Sehun wished the boy wouldn’t look his way. He was standing few feet away from the boy and Sehun now could clearly see his face- only he still did not know where he met the boy before.

A small chuckle escaped the boy’s throat while he turned to look at Sehun. And Sehun had never felt so small under someone’s gaze, “Yes. I did,” he paused and smiled heartily, “Don’t you worry. Everything you have, I have them too.”

And Sehun swore he wanted the floor to swallow his existence because one; it was an embarrassing thing to talk about but he knew he was at fault since he was the one who brought up the topic- but he couldn’t help it, and two; it was the most beautiful smile he had ever seen in his life. Sehun scolded himself because the second one seemed to be the main reason why he felt like he wanted to combust into flame.

 

**. . .**

 

The towel felt rough against his fingertips and Sehun did not dared to wipe his face with it. He let the towel hang on his shoulder, though. Sehun looked at his reflection on the mirror and noticed his prominent eye-bags. He grunted under his breath. He hated looking like this and there was only one to blame. Sehun gripped the side of the sink, the cold porcelain felt refreshing under his hot palms. He heaved a heavy sigh and squeeze shut his eyes, tightly. At this rate he was not sure whether he was trying to shake off the image or to focus. He just wanted to see _him_ again- even though the only image that could be played in his head was his _ex-boyfriend_ retreating figure, and Sehun knew too much that it shot daggers at his already crumbled heart and far from healing his longing.

A couple of knocks on the door snapped Sehun out of his reverie. He straightened and coughed embarrassingly as if he got caught. “You’ve been too long in there, man. You okay?” the boy asked.

Sehun coughed to clear his congested throat, “Ye-yeah. I’ll be out in a sec,” No, he knew he was not okay but it had been too long since someone asked him his whereabouts. He felt himself calmed down at the simple question by the stranger.

Turning on the faucet once again, Sehun splashed cold water on his face and he shivered consciously. Well, the heater seemed to be broken. Sehun realized that when he tried to switch on the heater but the light next to the switch never came to life. He noticed how small the space was- then he became aware of that might be what they call micro apartment. Sehun did not know, he was born with silver spoon in his mouth and everything in his life had already sort into places. And _this_ was far too different from what he usually woke up to. The boy’s place wasn’t shabby at all. In fact, it looked comfortable and homey. Sehun remembered that there was no bed frame; only a mattress covered with mediocre quality bed sheet was placed fittingly against the wall with just an enough space on the right side for the boy to place an array of thorn-less cacti on a row of clay bricks, and a tall light against the corner at the end of the room.

Opposite the mattress, rows of open wall shelves were packed with different kind of items. Sehun spotted picture frames, books, lots of mangas, keys, cups, more pictures lying around, and most importantly- Sehun spotted a pair ballet shoes. He did not wanted to come off nosy, but his tongue felt itchy to ask.

 

“Took you long enough,” the boy stood up from his chair and made a way to the counter, “I don’t know what could cure hangovers, but this is all that I have,”

Sehun walked to the table and sniffed in, “Chicken ramen?” He meant to ask to himself, but he accidentally blurted it out loud. _Great, now I sound like an ungrateful fuck_.

“Well, I did throw in some cabbages to clean up your system. Eh, better something than nothing,” he said.

Sehun pulled the chair and sat down quietly, not sure whether to be crept out by the boy’s all-natural behavior, or to feel touched by a sudden care from a complete stranger. It was a thin line between both.

“Hot citron tea is fine, yes?” the boy appeared in front of him and for once, Sehun was able to scrutinize his visual, “Y-yeah.” He stuttered a reply, “Thank you.”

“Stop looking and start eating while it’s still hot,” the boy picked up the utensils and placed it near Sehun’s hand before he sat down across of him. Sehun was too taken aback to ask anything. He sipped on the hot broth and felt his body relaxed. And as simple as the meal looked, it actually tasted very good. Or he was just too hungry. He was basically inhaling his food, and Sehun reckoned it was because he vomited everything he ate last night. _Oh_. He could remember everything. What happened the night before, the images were all in his head now.

“You carried me home because I missed my stop,” Sehun pointed out, placing his spoon on the table.

The boy nodded halfway, arms crossed. “Well I did not carry you, that’d be too strong of me. But I had your arms slung around my back and you still walked by yourself.”

“Uh-huh,”

“And you vomited in someone’s container water garden on the way here,” he sipped on his drink and continued, “Really, it was not a pleasant sight to see. Even at night, it was still kind of vivid.”

“Wow-“

“Are you done with your meal?”

“Well, yes,” Sehun took a peek into his bowl and there was still some food left but after listening to what the boy said, his appetite was cut short and the embarrassment was enormous. Not just he puked in someone’s garden, the male in front of him saw everything on top of that. Amazing. He knew he had to divert the topic.

“You’re not eating?” he asked, eyes darting around examining the small dining/kitchen area.

“I ran out of food but I always skip my breakfast anyways,” he turned on the faucet and started doing the dish, “Just a box of strawberry milk is fine for me. I don’t eat much anyways. But I like chicken. I haven’t had them in ages.” he trailed off.

“But you gave me your food-“

“You needed it more than me. I said it’s fine.”

Sehun clammed shut his mouth. At this point he did not know what to say anymore. This stranger was being way too nice to him and he became troubled by it. The boy’s back was facing him, and Sehun reckoned that their height might not be too much of a different from each other. _Why not prove myself right?_ He pushed his chair and stood up, making his way towards the latter and he shocked himself by doing such act. Sehun could see his profile and felt a tug in his chest. The boy was beautiful. His skin was slightly darker than Sehun’s, it was pleasing to see. Every other person was either too pale or too white. Sehun liked what he saw.

“What?” the boy asked, raising one eyebrow at him.

“What are you?” _Way to go, Sehun_.

He snorted, “What am I?”

“I mean, who are you?” Sehun became annoyed. _He_ knew what he meant.

The boy stifled a giggle and took off the gloves, hanging them on the side of the sink.

He extended his hand and Sehun raised a questioning brow. _Okay, what now?_ The boy’s smile grew wider and Sehun started to blush. He nodded his head in an assuring manner, convincing Sehun to accept his hand. Sehun was not sure why he felt alienated by the act. But after a while, he shook it anyway. The boy’s palm was rough against his soft one, but their hands fit perfectly together. Sehun did not fail to note that. His cheeks reddened.

“Jongin. My name is Kim Jongin. I used to be your schoolmate.”

**Author's Note:**

> For a good friend.


End file.
